Distributed media content transfer and access management

ABSTRACT

A personal electronic device includes non-volatile data storage media and control circuitry configured to establish a first connection with a remote media content management server over a first communication network, receive media content item from the media content management server over the first communication network, temporarily store the media content in the non-volatile data storage media, establish a second connection with a network access terminal of a media delivery system associated with a vehicle over a second communication network using, transfer the media content from the non-volatile data storage media to the media delivery system over the second communication network, and after said transferring the at least a portion of the media content item, delete the at least a portion of the media content from the non-volatile data storage media.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to communications systems, and moreparticularly to media content transfer and management.

The maintenance and updating of media content stored on vehicles such asaircraft can involve the transfer of large amounts of data, and canrequire extensive data storage and/or communication network resources.

SUMMARY

In some implementations, the present disclosure relates to a personalelectronic device comprising a wireless communication interface,non-volatile data storage media, and control circuitry communicativelycoupled to the wireless communication interface and the non-volatiledata storage media. The control circuitry is configured to establish afirst connection with a remote media content management server over afirst communication network, receive at least a portion of a mediacontent item from the media content management server over the firstcommunication network, temporarily store the at least a portion of themedia content item in the non-volatile data storage media, establish asecond connection with a network access terminal of a media deliverysystem associated with a vehicle over a second communication networkusing the wireless communication interface, transfer the at least aportion of the media content item from the non-volatile data storagemedia to the media delivery system over the second communication networkusing the wireless communication interface, and after said transferringthe at least a portion of the media content item, delete the at least aportion of the media content from the non-volatile data storage media.In some embodiments, the at least a portion of the media contentcomprises encrypted media.

The control circuitry may be further configured to transmit anindication to the media content management server indicating an amountof data storage of the non-volatile data storage media that is availablefor temporary storage of media content from the media content managementserver. In certain embodiments, the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to obtain an indication that the at least a portion of themedia content item is desired for transfer to a media delivery systemassociated with another vehicle, maintain the at least a portion of themedia content item in the non-volatile data storage media for a periodof time after said transferring the at least a portion of the mediacontent item in response to the indication, and transfer the at least aportion of the media content item from the non-volatile data storagemedia to the media delivery system associated with the other vehicle.Deleting the at least a portion of the media content from thenon-volatile data storage media may be performed after said transferringthe at least a portion of the media content to the media delivery systemassociated with the other vehicle.

The control circuitry may be further configured to determine that thepersonal electronic device has unused network capacity at a first periodof time, wherein said transferring the at least a portion of the mediacontent item is performed at least in part during the first period oftime based on the determination that the personal electronic device hasunused network capacity. In certain embodiments, the control circuitryis further configured to, after said deleting the at least a portion ofthe media content from the non-volatile data storage media, notify themedia content management server that the portion of the media contenthas been deleted.

In some implementations, the present disclosure relates to a mediacontent management server comprising non-volatile data storage mediastoring a media content library comprising media content items,association data associating users with personal electronic devices, anditinerary data indicating vehicles that the users are scheduled totravel on. The media content management server further comprises anetwork interface and control circuitry configured to identify a firstuser scheduled to travel on a vehicle based on the itinerary data,determine a first personal electronic device of the first user based onthe association data, and provide a first portion of content of themedia content items to the first personal electronic device over a firstnetwork using the network interface to allow for local transferring ofthe first portion of content by the first personal electronic device toa content delivery system of the vehicle over a second network when thefirst user is onboard the vehicle.

In some embodiments, the non-volatile data storage media stores licensedata indicating associations between the media content item and thevehicles, and the control circuitry is further configured to determine asubset of the media content items that is associated with a vehiclebased on the license data, wherein the first portion of the mediacontent items comprises a portion of the subset of the media contentitems. The control circuitry may be further configured to determine thesubset of the media content items that is associated with the vehicle atleast in part based on a comparison of current content items stored inthe content delivery system of the vehicle and content items intended tobe stored on the vehicle.

The control circuitry may be further configured to provide a secondportion of content of the media content items to the content deliverysystem of the vehicle over a third network. In certain embodiments, thecontrol circuitry is further configured to transmit a request to thefirst personal electronic device requesting access to data storage ofthe first personal electronic device. In certain embodiments, thecontrol circuitry is further configured to receive an indication fromthe first personal electronic device over the first network indicatingan amount of storage that is usable for temporary storage of the firstportion of content, and identify the first portion of content based onthe indicated amount of storage.

In certain embodiments, the control circuitry is further configured toidentify a second user scheduled to travel on the vehicle based on theitinerary data, determine a second personal electronic device of thesecond user based on the association data, and provide a second portionof content of the media content items to the second personal electronicdevice over the first network using the network interface. At least someof the first portion of content may be part of the second portion ofcontent. In certain embodiments, the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to, when said local transferring of the first portion ofcontent by the first personal electronic device to the content deliverysystem of the vehicle over the second network is unsuccessful, transferthe first portion of content to the content delivery system of thevehicle over a third network.

In some implementations, the present disclosure relates to a contentdelivery system for a vehicle. The content delivery system comprisesnon-volatile data storage media configured to store a media contentlibrary, a network access terminal, and a media content server. Themedia content server comprises control circuitry configured to establisha connection with a first personal electronic device over a firstnetwork using the network access terminal, receive a first portion ofcontent from the first personal electronic device over the firstnetwork, store the first portion of content in the non-volatile datastorage media, receive a request for access to a content item of themedia content library associated with the first portion of content froma media presentation device, and provide at least part of the firstportion of content to the media presentation device in response to therequest.

The control circuitry may be further configured to receive a secondportion of content from a remote media content management server over asecond network. In certain embodiments, the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to determine that the first portion of content is valid priorto said storing the first portion of content in the non-volatile datastorage media. In certain embodiments, the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to receive an indication from a remote source over a secondnetwork indicating that a subset of the media content library isdesignated as active, identify at least a portion of the subset of themedia content library as active based on the indication, and cause theat least a portion of the subset of the media content to be presented ona display of the media presentation device. The control circuitry may befurther configured to restrict access to media of the media contentlibrary that is not designated as active. In certain embodiments, thecontrol circuitry is further configured to obtain an indication of thepresence of the first personal electronic device, wherein said receivingthe first portion of the content from the first personal electronicdevice is performed in response to said indication. In certainembodiments, the media presentation device comprises one of a personalelectronic device and a seatback media unit.

In some implementations, the present disclosure relates to a method ofdelivering media content on a vehicle. The method comprises, by controlcircuitry of an onboard media delivery system installed in a vehicle,establishing a connection with a first personal electronic devicedisposed within the vehicle over a first network using a network accessunit of the onboard media delivery system, receiving a first portion ofcontent from the first personal electronic device over the firstnetwork, storing the first portion of content as part of a media contentlibrary in a non-volatile data store disposed within the vehicle,receiving a request for access to a content item of the media contentlibrary associated with the first portion of content from a mediapresentation device disposed within the vehicle, and providing at leastpart of the first portion of content to the media presentation device inresponse to the request.

The method may further comprise receiving a second portion of contentfrom a remote media content management server over a second network, andstoring the second portion of content as part of the media contentlibrary in the non-volatile data store. In certain embodiments, themethod further comprises establishing a connection with a secondpersonal electronic device disposed within the vehicle over the firstnetwork, receiving a second portion of content from the second personalelectronic device over the first network, and storing the second portionof content as part of the media content library in the non-volatile datastore, wherein said providing the at least a portion of the mediacontent library comprises providing the first portion of contenttogether with the second portion of content to the media presentationdevice. In certain embodiments, the method further comprisesestablishing a connection with a remote computing device over a secondnetwork, receiving, from the remote computing device over the secondnetwork, an indication indicating a subset of the media content librarythat is designated as active, updating metadata to indicate that thesubset of the media content library is designated as active, andpresenting at least a portion of the subset of the media content librarythat is designated as active on the media presentation device based atleast in part on said updating.

In some implementations, the present disclosure relates to a method ofmanaging media content on a vehicle. The method comprises, by controlcircuitry of an onboard media delivery system installed in a vehicle,storing a media content library comprising a plurality of media contentitems in non-volatile data storage media disposed in the vehicle,storing access rule data in the non-volatile data storage media, theaccess rule data indicating, for each of the plurality of media contentitems, whether the respective media content item is designated asactive, establishing a connection with a remote computing device over acommunication link, receiving, from the remote computing device over thecommunication link, an indication indicating a first subset of the mediacontent library to be designated as active, updating the access ruledata to indicate that the first subset of the media content library isdesignated as active, and presenting at least a portion of the firstsubset of the media content library on a media presentation device basedat least in part on said updating.

In certain embodiments, the method further comprises maintaining asecond subset of the media content library in the non-volatile datastorage media after said receiving the indication, wherein the updatedaccess rule data indicates that the second subset of the media contentlibrary is designated as inactive. The method may further compriserestricting access to the second subset of the media content library.

In some implementations, the present disclosure relates to a mediamanagement system for a vehicle. The media management system comprisesnon-volatile data storage media configured to store a media contentlibrary comprising a plurality of media content items, and access ruledata, the access rule data indicating, for each of the plurality ofmedia content items, whether the respective media content item isdesignated as active. The media management system further comprises anetwork access terminal, and a media content server, the media contentserver comprising control circuitry configured to establish a connectionwith a remote computing device over a communication link, receive, fromthe remote computing device over the communication link, an indicationindicating a first subset of the media content library is designated asactive, update the access rule data to indicate that the first subset ofthe media content library is designated as active, and present at leasta portion of the first subset of the media content library on a mediapresentation device based at least in part on said updating. In certainembodiments, the non-volatile data storage media is further configuredto store a second subset of the media content library in thenon-volatile data storage media, and the updated access rule dataindicates that the second subset of the media content library isdesignated as inactive. The control circuitry may be further configuredto restrict access to the second subset of the media content library.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments are depicted in the accompanying drawings forillustrative purposes, and should in no way be interpreted as limitingthe scope of this disclosure. In addition, various features of differentdisclosed embodiments can be combined to form additional embodiments,which are part of this disclosure.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system for updating an onboard media contentlibrary and/or associated media access rules associated with a vehiclein accordance with one or more embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a system for transferring media content between anon-ground media server and a personal electronic device in accordancewith one or more embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates a process for transferring media content from anon-ground media server to a personal electronic device in accordancewith one or more embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates a process for transferring media content to a mediamanagement server of a vehicle using a personal electronic device inaccordance with one or more embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates a process for remotely managing access rules for anonboard media management system of a vehicle in accordance with one ormore embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates components of an onboard media management systemcorresponding to various stages of the process of FIG. 5 in accordancewith one or more embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The headings provided herein are for convenience only and do notnecessarily affect the scope or meaning of the claimed invention. Incertain implementations, the present disclosure relates to systems,devices and methods for transferring media content to onboard mediamanagement systems of vehicles, as well as managing access to thereto.

Aircraft and other vehicles often store media content libraries for thepurpose of providing entertainment and/or other content or resources forpassengers. Generally, media content stored on a vehicle, such as anaircraft, may be subject to periodic content updating processes. Forexample, such processes may be implemented weekly, monthly, quarterly,or according to some other schedule. In some implementations, when anonboard media content library maintained in a vehicle becomes expired,or replacement thereof is desired for some reason, the onboard mediacontent library may be replaced, at least in part. For example, theonboard media content library may be replaced with an entirely newcatalog in some situations. The new or updated library may have someoverlap content with the previous library in some instances.

The updating of media content on a vehicle may be implemented usingvarious types of digital content transfer, such as directly to thevehicle over a communication network (e.g., Internet connection viasatellite or other wireless hardware and/or communication protocol), orthrough physical media exchange. For example, one or more data storagedrives storing media content may be physically removed and swapped orexchanged with one or more substitute data storage drives or mediadevices. In order to implement physical data storage device exchange, itmay generally be required for the drives/devices to be pre-loaded withthe updated media content and carried or otherwise physicallytransported onto the vehicle. Due to the amount of content stored onsuch physical drives/devices, the drives/devices may be relatively largeand/or cumbersome to transport or load in the vehicle's media managementsystem, making physical exchange of data storage drives undesirable andlabor intensive in some contexts.

In addition, the use of media content on vehicles may be governed atleast in part by certain media license or access rules, which maygovern, at least in part, the rights to access the media content. Theterm “access rules” may refer to any data structure identifying orindicating which media content items are designated as active and/orinactive, as described in more detail below. Such access rules may befor a particular term or period of time, and may indicate the termsunder which particular content items may be viewed and/or accessed inaccordance with the relevant license agreement(s). In someimplementations, access rules indicate, such as on a monthly basis, thatcertain media content items will become active at a certain point intime, whereas certain other media content items may become inactive atsuch point in time. As volumes of media content become more expansive,it may be desirable for the licensing windows to likewise become shorterin order to accommodate the relatively frequent updating and/ormodification of media content and/or associated licensing/access rules.As described in more detail below, the systems and methods describedherein utilize access rules to permit such frequent updating. This is incontrast to the use of physical storage drive exchange to update mediacontent, where it may be difficult for such exchanges to be implementedwith the necessary frequency and/or timing precision dictated byrelatively shorter access or licensing windows.

Active content stored in an onboard media content library of a vehiclemay be made visible to passengers under certain conditions. The term“active” refers to media content that is available for selection,distribution or presentation to passengers of a vehicle at a given time.For example, active media content items may be content that is licensedor otherwise permitted for distribution or presentation to passengers bythe media system of the vehicle. Furthermore, active media content itemsmay include certain content that is public domain content, or otherfreely accessible content not requiring specific license orauthorization, wherein such content is stored in the media contentlibrary of the vehicle and is designated as available for distributionor presentation by the media system of the vehicle. Similarly, the terms“inactive” and “deactivated” may be used to refer to media content orcontent items that are stored in the onboard media content library of avehicle, but are not designated for distribution or presentation topassengers of the vehicle at a given time. For example, inactive contentmay be content that is not licensed or authorized at a given time, andtherefore access to such content may be restricted at least in partthrough designation as inactive/deactivated. As another example,inactive content may be content that is licensed or authorized, but maynevertheless be made unavailable for selection distribution orpresentation due to its designation as inactive. As referenced above, insome implementations, inactive media content items may be removed fromthe onboard media content library and/or data storage of a vehiclesmedia system. However, for reasons outlined above, content removalprocesses that involve the manual swapping-out of data storagedrive(s)/device(s) can prove relatively costly and/or time-consuming.Therefore, in some situations, it may be desirable for media contentupdating to be performed over a network, wherein such content istransferred from a remote media server media content library. However,in view of the relatively large amounts of data that may be involvedwith content updating in a vehicle media system, the costs associatedwith network-based transfer of updated content may be undesirable orprohibitive in some situations. Furthermore, the amount of time to loadsuch large volumes of data can be problematic. In some implementations,hundreds of gigabytes, or more, of data may be exchanged during a singlemedia content update.

Media Content Management System

In some implementations, the present disclosure provides systems,methods, and devices that provide for remotely and/or automaticallymanaging access and/or updates to media content stored in a vehiclemedia system substantially without requiring manual physical datastorage drive/device swapping or exchange. FIG. 1 illustrates a system100 for updating an onboard media content library 140 and/or associatedmedia access rules 144 associated with a vehicle 150 in accordance withone or more embodiments.

The system 100 includes an onboard media management system 160, whichmay be installed in, and/or disposed on or in, a vehicle 150, such as anaircraft, cruise ship, automobile, or the like. Although certainembodiments are disclosed herein in the context of aircraft, or othervehicles, it should be understood that the principles disclosed hereinmay be applicable to any suitable or desirable mobile platform orvehicle. The onboard media management system 160 may be associated withan onboard media content library 140, which may be configured to storecertain media content items 143 as part of a content library. Theonboard media content library 140 may include both active media contentitems 149 and inactive media content items 147, as described in detailherein. The media content items 143 may comprise any type of mediacontent files or data structures, as well as any type of media,including movies, shows, other types of video files, audio files, newsor text content, or the like. The onboard media management system 160may be configured to make accessible the active media content 149 toprovide, with respect to aircraft-based embodiments, in-flightentertainment to passengers onboard the aircraft. Such entertainmentcontent may be viewable by the passengers using various electronicdevices, such as vehicle-integrated media presentation devices 162(e.g., seatback media presentation devices), and/or other electronicdevices that may be viewable by passengers. For example, passengers mayhave personal electronic devices (referred to herein as “PEDs”), whichmay be configured to connect with the onboard management system 160 inorder to receive media therefrom.

In some implementations, the present disclosure allows for theoffsetting of at least part of the content-uploading burden associatedwith updating the onboard media content library 140 to personalelectronic devices (e.g. personal electronic device 105). For example,personal electronic devices (e.g., personal electronic device 105) maycomprise control circuitry and/or data storage configured to storerelatively small chunks of one or more media content items that may beinitially loaded thereon when the personal electronic device is notphysically located onboard the vehicle, wherein the stored media contentmay be subsequently transferred to the onboard media management system160 when the personal electronic device is brought onto the vehicle 150and/or in proximity thereto. In some embodiments, validation process(es)may be performed by the onboard media management system 160 to validatethe media content stored by the personal electronic device prior touploading the same. The uploading of the stored media content on thepersonal electronic device may be performed at least partiallyautomatically upon connecting to an onboard communication network. Thestoring and transferring of relatively small chunks of media content topersonal electronic devices, followed by the uploading thereof frompersonal electronic devices to onboard media management systems, may beconsidered “distributed” content updating or transfer, as described indetail herein.

With further reference to FIG. 1, the system 100 may provide for theperiodic updating of the onboard media content library 140 associatedwith the vehicle 150 through various mechanisms. For example, in certainembodiments, the updating of the onboard media content library 140 isperformed at least in part over a network connection external to thevehicle 150, such as through a satellite network connection 142 and/oranother type of network connection 123 with the Internet or othernetwork 122 (e.g., Wi-Fi or other network connection). In addition, theupdating of the onboard media content library 140 may further beperformed partly through distributed content updating using personalelectronic devices carried onto the vehicle 150, as referenced above.The network 122 can be any type of network and can include, for example,one or more of: The Internet, an IP network, an intranet, a wide areanetwork (WAN), local area network (LAN), a virtual private network(VPN), a virtual LAN (VLAN), a fiber optic network, a cable network, apublic switched telephone network (PSTN), a public switched data network(PSDN), a public land mobile network, a cellular network, and/or anyother type of network supporting communication as described herein.Furthermore, the network 122 can include both wired (e.g., copper andoptical) and wireless (e.g., radio and microwave) connections.

In some implementations, relatively smaller batches or chunks of mediacontent may be transferred from the on-ground media server 130 to thevehicle 150 over wide-area network connections, such as Internetconnections using the satellite network 142, a cellular networkconnection, a Wi-Fi network connection, and/or the like. Such smallerbatches/chunks may include, for example, complete or partial copies ofmovies, television shows, music, movie trailers or other promotionalfeatures, newsfeeds, such as daily newsfeeds, or the like. For suchpurposes, the vehicle 150 may comprise a cellular modem (e.g., 4G, GSM,CDMA, LTE, etc.), Wi-Fi modem, satellite modem, or the like. When thevehicle comes within the range of a wireless network gateway, theonboard media management system 160 may be transferred at least part ofa content update package from the on-ground media server 130 over, forexample, the Internet or other wide area network. For example, foraircraft embodiments, when the aircraft lands and comes within awireless network gateway range associated with an airport or terminalthereof, at least some of the content update may be transferred over alocal area network connection, such as Wi-Fi connection or the like.Additionally or alternatively, the satellite network 142 may be used totransfer at least part of the content update. For example, the satellite149 may be used to provide at least partial content updates to one ormore aircraft or other vehicles. For example, the satellitecommunication system 142 may use trickle-feeding mechanisms or processesto provide update content to the vehicle 150. For example, while thevehicle (e.g., aircraft) is traveling and passes through satellite beamsthat have relatively less utilization, content may be passed to thevehicle 150, whereas when the vehicle is physically located in morecongested beams, less or no content may be passed over the satelliteconnection. The capacity of a respective beam may be balanced with thenumber of vehicles located within the beam to determine a desiredbandwidth utilization for transferring update content to the directlyvehicle 150.

The system 100 further comprises an on-ground media server 130 that isconfigured to remotely manage the transferring of media content 133stored in an on-ground content library data store 132 to the onboardmedia content library 140 of the vehicle 150. For example, the on-groundmedia server 130 may implement such media content transfer through theuse of personal electronic devices (105, 106, 108, 166) of passengersand/or crewmembers scheduled to travel on the vehicle 150. To aid in theunderstanding of the description herein, different reference designators(105, 106, 108) are used for personal electronic devices that have notyet been brought onboard and/or in proximity of the vehicle 150, thanthe reference designator (166) used once the personal electronic deviceshave been brought onboard and/or in proximity of the vehicle. Thus, thedifferent reference designators may be used to represent the samepersonal electronic device at different instances of time. The transferof media content between the on-ground server 130 and the personalelectronic devices (105, 106, 108) is described in further detail withrespect to the system 200 of FIG. 2, which illustrates a system 200 fordistributing media content data to a personal electronic device 205. Theon-ground media server 130 may provide various types of media contentitems, such as linear media content items (e.g., linear audio and/orvideo media), such content that are scheduled for delivery at a certaintime (e.g., a television show run at a set time, etc.). For example,various broadcast television channel offerings may be available from theon-ground media server 130. The on-ground media server 130 mayadvantageously additionally or alternatively provide non-linear mediacontent (e.g., video on demand), which may be available on-demand toelectronic devices onboard the vehicle 150 (e.g., electronic devices166) to the extent that such content is active and/or authorized. Theon-ground media server 130 may include one or more media servers, mediastorage devices, etc., as well as other data stores.

With further reference to FIG. 1, the onboard media management system160 of the vehicle 150 is configured to implement content delivery topassengers of the vehicle. The onboard media management system 160 maybe communicatively coupled to, or associated with, an access point 164,which may serve as a network access terminal for connecting withpersonal electronic devices 166 associated with passengers of thevehicle over a network connection, such as a Wi-Fi or other wirelessconnection.

The vehicle 150 may comprise a network access terminal 151 forestablishing a connection with an external access network, such as asatellite network, cellular network, or other network. The networkaccess terminal 151 comprises one or more of an antenna 152, atransceiver 154, and a modem 156, for facilitating networkcommunications. The antenna 152 may be in communication with thetransceiver 154, which may be in communication with the modem 156. Thewireless access point 164 may be in communication with the onboard mediamanagement system 160 and/or other network access components (notshown).

The onboard electronic devices 166 may comprise control circuitryconfigured to execute one or more applications that provide an interfacefor users/passengers on the vehicle 150 to obtain and/or consume mediacontent items of the onboard media content library 140; the user mayhave the option to select/request one or more media content items fromthe interface.

The network access terminal 151 installed in the vehicle 150 can providefor reception of a forward downlink signal from satellite access network142 including a satellite 149 and a gateway 145, as well as transmissionof a return uplink signal to the satellite-based access network usingthe satellite 149 and the gateway 145. Such features may support two-waydata communications between the various electronic devices within thevehicle 150 and the terrestrial network 122. The network access terminal151 may further provide connectivity between the onboard mediamanagement system 160 and the on-ground media server 130 via thesatellite 149 and gateway 145. The gateway 145 may also be in datacommunication with the network 122, and thereby to the on-ground mediaserver 130.

The electronic devices 162, 166 disposed within the vehicle 150 caninclude any type of personal electronic devices 166 (e.g., smartphones,laptops, tablets, netbooks, and the like) brought onto the vehicle 150by passengers, as well as passenger seat back systems 162 or otherdevices on the vehicle 150. The electronic devices 162, 166 can beconfigured to communicate with the onboard media management system 160via a communication link that can be wired and/or wireless. Thecommunication link can be, for example, part of a local area network,such as a wireless local area network (WLAN) supported by the wirelessaccess point (WAP) 164. One or more access points 164 can be distributedabout the vehicle 150, and can, in conjunction with the media managementsystem 140, provide traffic switching and routing functionality; forexample, as part of a WLAN extended service set (ESS), etc.

Passengers on the vehicle may interface with the onboard mediamanagement system 160 in any suitable or desirable way. For example,media content may be presented to passengers using electronic displaysof personal electronic devices 166 associated with the passengers, suchas through a web browser application or the like, or using an interfaceassociated with a vehicle-integrated media system, such as the seatbackmedia system 162. The onboard media management system 160 may serve as amedia delivery system and/or content server for providing media contentfor presentation using the personal electronic devices (e.g., PED 166)and/or presentation systems associated with the vehicle 150 (e.g.,seatback media presentation devices or systems 162).

The onboard media content library 140 comprises nonvolatile data storagemedia. Such data storage media may include any type or amount of datastorage, including magnetic media, optical media, solid-state media,and/or the like. The media content 143 comprises the current mediacontent items stored in the content delivery system of the vehicle 150.The onboard media content library 140 may store the access rules 144,which may comprise data indicating content distribution rights and/orother content access authorization parameters for the media content 143.For example, the access rules 144 may define media content distributionregions and/or windows of time within which the media content item mayor may not be presentable to passengers. The access rules 134 may alsobe maintained in the on-ground media server 130, or on a separate devicein data communication with the on-ground media server 130 and/or onboardmedia management system 160. The access rules 144 data may be stored inone or more tables, or any other type of data structure(s).

The access rules 144 may be defined in any suitable or desirable way.For example, media access rules/parameters may be based on userinformation associated with the user requesting a media content item.Such user information may be related to the carrier (e.g., airline) orprovider of the media content. As yet another example, the access rules144 may include rules specific to a particular vehicle (e.g., aparticular aircraft) and/or the source and/or destination of thevehicle.

With respect to the vehicle 150 and/or personal electronic devices 105,106, 108, 166, the on-ground server 130 may represent a remote mediacontent management server. Although referred to herein as an on-groundserver, the media server 130 may be physically disposed and/or situatedin any physical location; use of the term “on-ground” herein is forsimplicity and convenience to indicate that the media server 130 is notdisposed on the vehicle 150, but rather external thereto at somelocation. The on-ground media server 130 may be understood with respectto the on-ground media server 230 of FIG. 2, which may constitute anexample embodiment of the on-ground media server 130 of FIG. 1. Withrespect to FIG. 1, media content items can be obtained from theon-ground content server 130 via the network 122 and/or the on-groundterminal 145 or other terrestrial stations, gateways, or other networknodes, or the like.

With reference to FIG. 2, the on-ground media server 230 may comprisecontrol circuitry 231, which may be used to determine or acquireinformation relating to what media content of the on-ground contentlibrary 232 is to be added to a particular vehicle (e.g., the vehicle150 of the system 100 described above). Furthermore, the on-ground mediaserver 230 may acquire or maintain information indicating tripsassociated with the vehicle (e.g., flights) that a givenindividual/passenger is scheduled to take. Such information may bereferred to herein as “itinerary data” 236. The on-ground media server230 may further maintain, such as in the data storage media 232 of theon-ground content library, association data 235, which may include dataindicating associations between users/passengers and personal electronicdevices. For example, where a first user 202 is scheduled to travel on avehicle at a certain time, or for a certain flight or trip, as indicatedby the itinerary data 236, the on-ground media server 130 may use theassociation data 235 to determine a personal electronic device 205belonging to or otherwise associated with the user 202. Therefore, basedat least in part on the itinerary data 236 and/or association data 235,the on-ground media server 230 may be configured to determine that thepersonal electronic device 205 is scheduled to travel on a particularvehicle at certain time or for a certain trip or flight.

In some implantations, the itinerary data 236 comprises crew scheduleinformation indicating what crews or individuals are assigned to work orotherwise travel on a particular flight or trip of a vehicle. Theassociation data 235 may include information associating crewmemberswith personal electronic devices, such as company assigned computers,smart phones, and/or tablets.

Once one or more of the personal electronic devices (e.g., PED 205) havebeen identified as being scheduled to travel on a particular vehicle,the on-ground media server 230 may be configured to, using the controlcircuitry 231 and/or network interface 237 thereof, transfer mediacontent, such as content update data 239, to the personal electronicdevice 235 for storage thereon. That is, shards, chunks, or otherportions of media content that are desired to be transferred to thetarget vehicle may be encrypted and provided to the personal electronicdevice 205 and/or other identified personal electronic device(s). Theportions of media content provided to the personal electronic device 205by the on-ground server 230 may be stored in nonvolatile data storage210 of the personal electronic device 205. For example, as shown, themedia content 239 may be stored in the available capacity, partition, orportion 214 of the nonvolatile data storage 210 of the electronic device205. Subsequently, when the passenger 202, along with his or herpersonal electronic device 205, boards the target vehicle, the personalelectronic device 205 may upload the content 239 to the onboard mediamanagement server (not shown) of the vehicle.

For convenience, some of the following description and examples aredescribed in the context of a media management system of an aircraftvehicle. However, it should be understood that the concepts andprinciples described in the following description are applicable to anytype of vehicle or system. According to one example, an airline thatmanages a fleet of aircrafts may rely on an on-ground media serverand/or other components or entities to update media content of theonboard content librar(ies) of one or more aircraft of the fleet,wherein it is desired that the update is to be completed within acertain window of time (e.g., two weeks). The on-ground media server 230may maintain data indicating the desired media content for one or moreaircraft of the fleet, or for the entire fleet. The on-ground mediaserver 230 may further be provided the media content that is intended tobe updated to the fleet or aircraft. The on-ground server 230 mayperform certain quality and/or authorization checks, such as byinspecting metadata and/or media content, to validate or authorize themedia content intended for updating to the fleet. The on-ground mediaserver 230 may then initiate a publication of the update content 239 tothe desired aircraft. The on-ground content library 230 comprisesnonvolatile data storage media storing a plurality of media contentitems 233, as well as association data 235 associating users withpersonal electronic devices, itinerary data 236 indicating vehicles(e.g., aircraft) that various users are scheduled to travel on, and/orlicense data or access rules 234 indicating associations between themedia content items 233 and aircraft that indicate which aircraft areauthorized or licensed to use or present certain content.

The control circuitry 231 of the on-ground media server 230 may beconfigured to determine a subset of media content items 233 that isassociated with a particular vehicle or aircraft based on the accessrules/license data 234. That is, the content update 239 may represent asubset of the media content 233 that is desired for transfer to one ormore aircraft or vehicles. With respect to one or more media contentitems of the media content 233, no license may be required for use orpresentation thereof. For example, some content may be free, oropen-source, content that is not subject to licensing rules. Althoughthe content update 239 is described as being a subset of the mediacontent 233 in some embodiments, the media content that is transferredto the personal electronic device 205 and/or distributed among aplurality of personal electronic devices, or otherwise transferred to avehicle, may comprise the entire media content library 233. In suchcases, it may not be necessary for the on-ground media server 230 torely on the access rules 234 to determine what content to provide to aparticular vehicle.

With further reference to FIG. 2, the personal electronic device 205includes a network interface 209, such as a wireless communicationinterface, and control circuitry 201 coupled to the wirelesscommunication interface 209. Prior to travel on a vehicle (e.g.aircraft), the personal electronic device 205 may establish a connectionwith a communication network 222, such as a terrestrial network (e.g.,cellular network). The on-ground server 230 may facilitate temporarystorage of one or more content items or portions thereof, identified inFIG. 2 as the content update data 239, in an access-controlled manner inthe nonvolatile data storage 210 of the personal electronic device 205.For example, the content update data 239 may be stored in thenonvolatile data storage 210 in an encrypted format. Once onboard thetarget vehicle, the content update data 239 can be automaticallytransferred from the personal electronic device 205 to the onboardserver that is associated with the target vehicle via an access point,such as the access point 164 of the system 100 described above inconnection with FIG. 1.

In certain embodiments, the on-ground media server 230 and/or personalelectronic device 205 may be configured to implement the transfer of thecontent item(s) 239 between the on-ground media server 230 and thepersonal electronic device 205 during a period of time in which thenetwork used by the personal electronic device 205 has sufficient orunused network capacity or bandwidth. In some embodiments, the on-groundmedia server 230 may be configured to distribute the desired content forupdating to the target vehicle across a plurality of personal electronicdevices, wherein relatively smaller chunks or portions of data may betransferred to individual personal electronic devices, thereby improvingefficiency and/or utilization of available resources.

In some implementations, users of personal electronic devices may beincentivized in some way to allow the on-ground media server 230 toutilize portions of the personal electronic devices' respectivenonvolatile data storage. For example, the user 202 of the personalelectronic device 205 may be provided access to certain media contentonboard a vehicle or otherwise, and/or any other additional oralternative incentives, such as goods or services of value and/orspecial access to content, or the like. The personal electronic devicemay maintain code or application data 213 designed to implement mediacontent transfer functionality when executed. Such code may be embeddedin, or part of, a software application used to interface with therelevant airline or other transportation company/entity. With respect tocrew member users of personal electronic devices, the content stored inthe nonvolatile data storage of personal electronic devices associatedtherewith may be dynamically updated and/or modified to reflect thecontent desired for each of the respective vehicles on which the crewmember sequentially rides.

In some embodiments, the control circuitry 201 of the personalelectronic device 205 may be configured to transmit an indication to themedia server 230 indicating an amount of data storage of the nonvolatiledata storage 210 that is available or permissible for temporary storageof the content update data 239.

The network 222 may comprise a wide area network, such as the Internet.Therefore, the communication link between the personal electronic device205 and the on-ground media server 230 may be achieved over the Internetor other wide area network. Distributed media content transfer inaccordance with the present disclosure may provide certain advantagesover prior art content update systems. For example, distributed contenttransfer in accordance with the present disclosure may provide improvedconvenience, cost-effectiveness, and/or resource utilization whencompared to the exclusive use of direct transmission of content itemsfrom the on-ground media server 230 to onboard media servers/deliverysystems of vehicles over, for example, satellite networks or othernetwork connections used to transmit data to and from vehicles (e.g.,aircraft) directly. With respect to directly transmitting content itemsto a vehicle from an on-ground media server via an externalcommunication link, such as a satellite network connection, suchtransfer may compete with other data transfer needs of the vehicleserved by such network, which may prevent or impede and acceptable userexperience from being provided. For example, such other data transferneeds may involve requests for data from passengers currently onboardthe vehicle or aircraft.

Personal electronic devices may belong to different passengers and/orcrew members scheduled to travel on a vehicle. In certain embodiments,the data transfer to the different personal electronic devices may occurover different networks and/or at different times. Since each personalelectronic device may store a relatively small amount (e.g., hundredmegabytes) of the overall data intended for transfer to the onboardserver of the vehicle (e.g., hundreds of gigabytes), distributed mediacontent transfer in accordance with the present disclosure may providethe data storage and/or network resource demands to be distributed amonga plurality of network connections and/or electronic devices, such thatthe impact on any individual network connection or electronic device maybe relatively reduced or minimized. Furthermore, in someimplementations, the data transfer from the on-ground media server tothe respective personal electronic devices may be performed using a“trickle” data transfer process or capability, which may utilize unusedcapacity of a network when such capacity may otherwise be idle, andtherefore the impact on network bandwidth may be negligible or reduced.For example, a trickle transfer process may be implemented thattransfers data only when capacity is available after all other traffichas been transmitted. In such a case, the distributed data transfer ofthe selected media content item(s) may be a lower priority than othertraffic delivered via a wireless communication link or other networkconnection. In contrast, the real-time transfer of media content itemsvia a network communication may be at a higher priority than thedistributed pre-loading of media content.

In some implementations, data transfer of content update data topersonal electronic devices is performed when the personal electronicdevices are connected to a local area network (e.g., Wi-Fi), which mayfurther reduce the impact to the terrestrial (e.g., cellular) networkconnection 222. That is, the transfer by the on-ground media server 230of the content update data 239 to the personal electronic device 205 mayadvantageously be scheduled or implemented only when the personalelectronic device is connected to a Wi-Fi network or the like.

Media Content Transfer/Management Processes

FIG. 3 illustrates a process 300 for transferring content, such as mediacontent, from an on-ground media server 330 to a personal electronicdevice 306 in a distributed fashion in accordance with one or moreembodiments. The diagram of FIG. 3 illustrates an example time sequenceof events that may occur using the disclosed methods and systems. Withrespect to the various methods and processes disclosed herein, althoughcertain orders of operations or steps are illustrated and/or described,it should be understood that the various steps and operations shown anddescribed may be performed in any suitable or desirable temporal order.Furthermore, any of the illustrated and/or described operations or stepsmay be omitted from any given method or process, and theillustrated/described methods and processes may include additionaloperations or steps not explicitly illustrated or described.

The process 300 may utilize a personal electronic device 306 associatedwith a passenger or user 301. The process 300 may provide a mechanismfor adding content stored at an on-ground server 330 to the onboardmedia content library of a target vehicle using personal electronicdevices of passengers and/or crewmembers scheduled to travel on thevehicle. At block 302, the process 300 involves identifying contentitems to be added to the target vehicle, which may be performed at leastin part by control circuitry of the on-ground server 330. Content itemsmay be identified/selected for transfer to the vehicle at least in partby comparing one or more tables or metadata identifying content itemscurrently stored on the vehicle with one or more tables or metadataidentifying content items that are desired to be stored on the targetvehicle or aircraft. For example, a subset of the available mediacontent items maintained by the on-ground server 330 may beidentified/selected or generated based on the differences between thecurrent content items stored in the content delivery system of thevehicle and the content items that are desired to be stored in thecontent delivery system of the vehicle.

The process 300 further involves, at block 304, identifying personalelectronic devices that are scheduled to travel on the target vehicle oraircraft. The on-ground server 330 may identify the personal electronicdevices of passengers scheduled travel on the target vehicle in anysuitable or desirable manner. In some embodiments, a given personalelectronic device 306 is determined to be associated with a givenpassenger 301 prior to boarding the target vehicle for travel. Forexample, the passenger 301 may be prompted, such as via an applicationinterface displayed on the personal electronic device 306, to associatehim- or herself with his or her personal electronic device 306. Suchprocess may take place during one or more of the following processes:ticket buying, check-in, waiting to board the vehicle, or other periodof time or event associated with the travel. The on-ground server 330may identify the personal electronic device 306 based on data 303provided by the user 301 to the on-ground server 330, which may includecertain travel information and/or personal electronic device associationinformation linking the personal electronic device 306 to the passenger301. Such data 303 may be provided to the on-ground server 330 over anycommunication link or network, such as over a cellular network usingcertain cellular hardware 325 (e.g. cell tower). In some embodiments,identification of PED(s) is based at least in part on the location ofthe PED(s). For example, the process 300 may involve determining that aPED is currently located in a particular geographical region (e.g.,based on geolocation information obtained from the PED, the IP addressused by the PED, etc.), wherein selection of the PED for distributedmedia content transfer is based at least in part on such determination.

In some embodiments, the on-ground server 330 transmits a request to thepersonal electronic device 306 requesting access to data storage of thepersonal electronic device 306. For example, the passenger 301 may beprompted with a request or question inquiring whether he or she would bewilling to permit the use of their personal electronic device 306 fortransferring content item data 339 to the target vehicle. If thepassenger 301 provides a negative response, the process 300 may beterminated, whereas if the passenger provides an affirmative response,the process may continue to block 305.

The determination of content item data to transfer to the PED 306 atblock 305 may be based at least in part on the location of the PED 306.For example, the process 300 may involve verifying that the PED 306 isphysically located in a region in which the content item data isauthorized for distribution and/or presentation based on the accessrules. The selection or transfer of the content item data to the PED maybe based on such verification.

The interaction of the personal electronic device 306 with the on-groundserver and/or media management system of the target vehicle may beimplemented using an application that is executed by the personalelectronic device 306. The application may include a number of features,including one or more of an ability to make a reservation for travel onthe target vehicle, purchase a ticket for travel on the target vehicle,and/or obtain status information regarding travel on the target vehicle.In certain embodiments, the application may enable the user 301 toassociate his or her electronic device 306 with account credentials theuser 301 may have utilized in connection with an authentication or“login” process, such as a registered user name and/or password. Theapplication may also enable the user 301 to select one or more digitalcommunication services for use during travel on the vehicle, such asselection of media content items as described herein. For example, theapplication may provide an ability for the user 301 to select one ormore movies or other media content items (such as streaming music, podcasts, shows, short videos, and the like) for access during travel onthe vehicle.

In some embodiments, the passenger 301 may be incentivized in somemanner to allow the on-ground server 330 to utilize the data storage ofthe personal electronic device 306. Such incentives may be of anysuitable or desirable form or type. For example, the passenger/user 301may be permitted access to one or more content items for a certainamount of time before, during and/or after travel on the vehicle; freeor discounted network access onboard the vehicle may be provided; freeor discounted goods or services on board the vehicle may be provided;advertisement-free viewing of media content may be provided; and/oraccess to otherwise hidden or unavailable be content may be provided. Inembodiments in which crew devices are used to transfer content updatedata, the crew member devices may be used to store relatively morecontent than is stored in passenger personal electronic devices, as crewmembers may have access to more available data storage and/or may beincentivized to a greater degree to assist in the distributed contenttransfer, and may therefore be more receptive to allowing such usage.Furthermore, the crew members may be associated with personal electronicdevices used for storing maps and/or other travel-related data, and suchdevices may comprise data storage resources that may be further used forcontent transfer in a distributed fashion in accordance with the presentdisclosure.

The on-ground server 330 may have access to the vehicle assignmentschedule indicating the scheduled travel routes for the particularvehicle (e.g. aircraft). Because the passenger 301 is associated throughitinerary data with certain travel, as well as associated with thepersonal electronic device 306 through association data, the on-groundserver 330 may use the vehicle assignment schedule to generate anassociation between the personal electronic device 306 and theparticular vehicle. The on-ground server 330 may use such association toidentify the personal electronic device 306 as being available fortransferring content to the target vehicle. With respect to crewmembers, the on-ground server 330 may have access to travel itinerariesfor respective crew members.

Once the association between the personal electronic device 306 and thetarget vehicle travel has been made, the on-ground server 330 mayprovide the content item data 339 to the personal electronic device 306.In some embodiments, the content item data 339 is stored in the personalelectronic device 306 as an encrypted media content item 339. Thecontent item 339 may be subsequently uploaded to the target vehicle'smedia management/delivery system using, for example, a local areanetwork, such as a Wi-Fi connection or the like. By distributing thecontent data transferred to the vehicle to the personal electronicdevice 306, the need for direct server-to-vehicle data transfer may beat least partially mitigated. In some embodiments, at least a portion ofthe desired content to be transferred to the target vehicle may betransmitted over a direct server-to-vehicle connection.

The determining of content item(s) to be provided to the personalelectronic device 306 may be performed or implemented in any suitable ordesirable way. In some embodiments, the content item 339 may be selectedrandomly from among the identified content items to be added to theonboard server of the target vehicle. In some embodiments, certaincontent items may be prioritized, such that they have a higherlikelihood of being transferred to the target vehicle than other contentitems. The manner in which the prioritization is implemented may varyfrom implementation to implementation. For example, prioritization maybe based at least in part on what content items are most commonly viewedor desired for a given route or vehicle. For example, relatively populargenres or titles for a specific route or vehicle may be prioritized overless popular content. In some embodiments, content items that areprovided to passengers for payment are given priority over free content.Furthermore, prioritization may be based at least in part on the sizeand/or data rate associated with certain content items. For example,relatively larger files, such as movie files like, may be prioritizedover smaller files. In some embodiments, content item data is selectedfor distributed transfer based at least in part on the current contentitems stored on each vehicle that the passenger 301 is scheduled totravel on. For example, if the passenger 301 is scheduled travel onmultiple different vehicles, the content item data may be selected fromamong content items that are desired to be uploaded to multiple, or all,of the different vehicles (e.g., aircraft) that the passenger 301 isscheduled to travel on.

In some embodiments, the user 301 may be able to select the amount ofshared storage of the personal electronic device 306 that is availablefor storing the content item data 339. The process 300 may involvereceiving, from the personal electronic device 306 over the cellular orother connection, an indication of the amount of data storage that isusable for temporary storage by the server 330. In some implantations,distributed content transfer in accordance with the present disclosureis implemented only, or primarily, for relatively lower-prioritycontent. At the onboard media management module/system, the mediacontent may be made available for viewing by passengers as the contentis gradually updated through the use of distributed personal electronicdevices.

In order to account for various contingencies, such as passenger travelplan changes, or the like, the content 339 may be pushed or provided toone or more additional personal electronic devices associated withdifferent passengers scheduled to travel on the target vehicle. Suchredundant transfer of the content item data 339, or at least a portionthereof, may increase the probability that the content item data willultimately successfully be transferred to the onboard server of thevehicle. In some implementations, the on-ground server 330 may attemptto transfer the content item 339 to the personal electronic device 306,wherein, if the transfer to the personal electronic device isunsuccessful, the on-ground server 330 may attempt transfer to thetarget vehicle through other means, such as through direct transfer tothe target vehicle. Direct transfer of media content to a vehicle may beimplemented using one or more suitable communication system(s),including any suitable communication link or system, such as one or moreof: a satellite communication system, an air-to-ground communicationsystem, a hybrid satellite and air-to-ground communication system, acellular communication system, and/or others as are known by those ofskill in the art. Because of the mobile nature of vehicles (e.g.,vehicle 150 of FIG. 1), the communication system used for transfer ofcontent to a target vehicle may advantageously involve at least onewireless communication link, such as the aforementioned examples.

FIG. 4 illustrates a process 400 for transferring media content to anonboard media management system or server 460 of a vehicle 450 using apersonal electronic device 406. Although identified as an onboard server460 in FIG. 4, it should be understood that the onboard media managementserver 460 may be any type of onboard media management or/deliverysystem. The process 400 may be a continuation of the process 300 shownin FIG. 3 and described above. For example, the personal electronicdevice 406 may correspond to the personal electronic device 306 in FIG.3, wherein the personal electronic device 406 may have stored thereoncontent item data 439 received from an on-ground server. The contentitem data 439 may be stored on the personal electronic device 406 in anencrypted format.

When the personal electronic device 406 and/or associated passenger (notshown) boards the vehicle 450, the device 406 may connect to the onboardserver 460 via an access point 464. For example, the access point 464may provide a wireless access point for connecting to a local areanetwork in the vehicle 450. Once connected to the network, the personalelectronic device 406 may transfer the stored content item data 439 tothe onboard server 460. The connection with the access terminal 464and/or uploading/transferring of the content item data 439 to theonboard server 460 may be performed automatically in response to one ormore events. For example, when connected to the network, the personalelectronic device 406 may automatically initiate transfer of the contentitem data 439. In some implementations, the onboard server 460 isconfigured to detect the presence of the personal electronic device 406,either by physically detecting the presence through some presence sensoror other mechanism, or by detecting that the personal electronic device406 has connected to the network through the access point 464. In someembodiments, the personal electronic device 406 may notify the onboardserver 460 of its presence onboard the vehicle 450, which may triggerand/or initiate certain responsive actions, such as initiation ofcontent transfer from the personal electronic device to the onboardserver 460.

The onboard server 460 may store the content item data in data storagemedia as part of an onboard media content library 440. In someembodiments, the onboard server 460 may validate the content item data439 before or after storing the contents in the onboard media contentlibrary 440. In addition, the onboard server may perform validation withrespect to the personal electronic device 406 prior to, or subsequentto, transfer of the content item data. If the transfer of the contentitem data 439 to the onboard server 460 is unsuccessful for any reason,such as due to hardware and/or software malfunction, or due to thefailure of the passenger associated with the personal electronic deviceto board the vehicle, the content item data may be acquired through analternate transfer mechanism, such as over a satellite connection, orthe like.

Once the content item data 439 has been transferred to the onboardserver 460, the content item data may be deleted from the personalelectronic device 406. If another vehicle also requires the content itemdata, the data may not be deleted from the personal electronic device406 immediately subsequent to transfer therefrom to the onboard server460. For example, the onboard server 460 and/or personal electronicdevice 406 may determine that at least a portion of the media contentitem 439 is desired for upload to a media delivery system associatedwith another vehicle. That is, either or both of the personal electronicdevice 406 and the onboard server 460 may receive or obtain anindication that the media content item 439 is desired for upload toanother vehicle. In some embodiments, the onboard server 460 mayinstruct the personal electronic device 406 in some manner to maintainstorage of the content item data 439 thereon after upload to the onboardmedia content library 440.

In some embodiments, the on-ground server 330 (FIG. 3) is configured torequest or otherwise cause the content item data (339, 439) to bedeleted from the personal electronic device (306, 406) prior to transferof the content item data to the onboard media content library 440. Forexample, the on-ground server 330 may cause the content item data to bedeleted based at least in part on a physical location of the electronicdevice (306, 406), such as based on a determination that the electronicdevice is at a location where use of the content item data is notauthorized. In some embodiments, the on-ground server 330 may cause thecontent item data to be deleted from the personal electronic device(306, 406) after a predetermined time period has elapsed. In someembodiments, deleting of the content item data from the personalelectronic device may occur or be caused substantially automaticallybased on one or more conditions, such as location or the elapsing of aperiod of time. Deleting of the media content item data prior totransfer to the onboard media content library 440 may be directed byeither the on-ground server 330, the personal electronic device (306,406), or both.

The various techniques and mechanisms described herein for transferringcontent data to the vehicle 450 via the personal electronic device 406and/or one or more additional personal electronic devices (not shown)may also be used in conjunction with other techniques and mechanisms fortransferring content data to a vehicle, such as an aircraft. In someembodiments, the distributed data transfer to the vehicle 450 via thepersonal electronic device(s) may represent a best-effort approach,wherein certain media content data that is unable to be transferred in adistributed manner using personal electronic devices is directlytransferred to the aircraft over a satellite or other networkconnection. For example, the process 400 may involve determining (e.g.,by the on-ground server 330) the media content that has successfullybeen transferred to the onboard media content library 440, and furtherdetermining a portion of media content that is desired to be transferredto the media content library that still remains to be transferred. Basedon the determination of the remaining media content data to betransferred, the on-ground server may initiate the transfer of theremaining media content through a direct communication link to thevehicle 450, such as over a satellite link. The determination of whatmedia content data has been successfully transferred to the onboardmedia content library 440 may be made by the on-ground server 330 byquerying the onboard server 460. In some embodiments, the personalelectronic device 406 is configured to send a confirmation to theon-ground server 330 indicating whether transfer of the content itemdata 439 to the onboard media content library 440 was successful. Thedetermination of the remaining media content data to be transferred tothe onboard media content library 440 may be made at, or with respectto, a particular period of time in which the media content is desired tobe stored on the onboard media content library 440. For example, if amedia content update is to be completed at a point in time, at or nearthe point in time, the on-ground server may determine the remainingmedia content not yet stored at the onboard media content library 440,and initiate a direct transfer of the remaining media content at oraround that time.

The media content transferred to the vehicle 450 may be transferred tothe vehicle prior to explicit request for access to such content by apassenger or other user or system, and/or may be transferred to thevehicle in response to a request by the passenger for the content itemdata that is not currently stored in the onboard media content library.

In some embodiment, at least a portion of the media content (e.g., thecontent item data 439) stored in the onboard media content library 440may be desired for transfer to another vehicle. In such situations, thedesired media content may be pushed from the vehicle 450 to the othervehicle. The pushing of the media content from the vehicle 450 to theother vehicle may be made by directly transferring the content betweenvehicles (e.g., via a WiFi or other wireless connection when thevehicles are in a common physical area), or by utilizing one or morepersonal electronic devices of passengers scheduled to travel on theother vehicle and pushing the desired content to the personal electronicdevices for subsequent upload to the other vehicle.

Although various embodiments are disclosed herein in the context oftransfer of media content between personal electronic devices andonboard media content libraries, it should be understood that theprinciples disclosed herein are applicable to the transfer of othertypes of data between personal electronic devices and onboard systems.For example, in some embodiments, an onboard system may be configured totransfer diagnostic or other data relating to the vehicle to personalelectronic devices travelling on the vehicle, wherein the transferreddiagnostic or other data is later transferred to a remote server (e.g.,the on-ground server 330) after the passenger associated with thepersonal electronic device has exited the vehicle.

Remote Media Content Access Management

An onboard media content server for a vehicle, such as an aircraft, asdescribed above in connection with FIG. 1, may store certain licenseand/or access rules or data associated with content items stored in thecontent library of the vehicle. Such rules may indicate whether or not agiven content item is accessible and/or licensed for viewing bypassengers or other users. That is, the onboard media content librarymay store inactive media content items that are not currently authorizedfor, or made available to, passengers or other users. Such contentaccess rules maintained by the onboard media management system may beupdated sporadically or periodically. In some implementations, thepresent disclosure relates to systems and methods for remotely updatingsuch content access rules, such as from a remote on-ground server, tothereby provide remote activation or deactivation of content stored inthe onboard media content library of a vehicle to passengers or otherusers.

FIG. 5 illustrates a process 500 for remotely managing access rules foran onboard media management system of a vehicle in accordance with oneor more embodiments. FIG. 6 illustrates various components of an onboardmedia management system corresponding to various stages of the process500 in accordance with one or more embodiments. The process 500 mayallow for relatively quick and/or efficient updating of contentavailable to passengers on a vehicle by allowing for the remoteactivation and/or deactivation of content already stored in a contentlibrary maintained in data storage 602 onboard the vehicle. Inconnection with the process 500, deactivated content may be placed intoan idle state, rather than deleted from the onboard media contentlibrary 602, thereby providing the benefit of avoiding and/or limitingcosts and/or other limitations associated with the adding and/ordeleting of content in connection with content library updates. Forexample, a given content item that is currently deactivated may beactivated in response to transmission of a command from a remote source,which may provide a more efficient mechanism for updating content in acontent library compared to transmitting an entire copy of the givencontent item in real time.

As shown in FIG. 6, the content library 602 of an onboard mediamanagement system may store plurality of content items (Item A, Item B).The process 500 involves, at block 502, storing the media content itemsin the onboard media content library. This step 502 may be performed atany point in time. The process 500 further involves, at block 504,storing access rules at the onboard media management system of thevehicle. Although embodiments are disclosed herein in which access rulesare maintained onboard the vehicle, it should be understood that, insome implementations, the access rules are not stored locally onboardthe vehicle, but rather accessed (e.g., by the onboard media managementsystem) when necessary from a remote location. As shown in FIG. 6, theaccess rules may comprise metadata, such as table data, indicatingwhether individual content items are active and accessible forpresentation to passengers.

At block 506, the process 500 involves presenting active content and/orrestricting presentation of inactive content to passengers or otherusers. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, such active content may bepresented using a seatback media presentation device, or any other mediapresentation device or system.

At block 508, the process 500 involves connecting to a remote computingdevice, such as an on-ground media server or other computing device orsystem. Over the remote connection, the process 500 involves, at block510, receiving updated access rule information. For example, anindication may be received, as shown at stage 609 of FIG. 6, indicatingitems of the content library 602 that are to be identified as activeand/or inactive or deactivated.

At block 512, the process 500 involves updating the stored or maintainedaccess rules to reflect the remotely provided update indication. Forexample, as shown at stage 612 of FIG. 6, the update indication mayresult in the access rules indicating that certain previously activeitems are now inactive, while certain previously inactive items are nowactive.

At block 514, the process 500 involves presenting the newly activatedcontent and/or restricting the newly inactivated or deactivated content,as reflected in the illustrated stage 614 of FIG. 6.

Deactivated content may be effectively placed into an idle state, ratherthan deleted from the content library 602, which may advantageouslyallow for relatively quick and efficient updates to reactivate thepreviously deactivated content, such that transfer of the content to theonboard media content library may not be necessary since it will alreadybe stored in the content library when activation is desired.

Remote activation and/or deactivation of content may at least partiallyreduce the burden of transferring large amounts of data to and/or fromthe onboard media management system. Furthermore, by storing both activeand inactive content, the onboard media management server may be able tomanage the content library to make accessible to passengers and otherusers only the amount of content that the system is authorized topresent.

The process of FIGS. 5 and 6 may allow for the pre-loading of a mediamanagement systems with large amounts of media content, wherein suchlibrary may be remotely managed to selectively present media content topassengers. Inactive content may be maintained on the data storage ofmedia management server, but reflect a new content state that is idle,such that it is not available for presentation to users. Such mechanismsmay minimize the amount of loading and/or deleting of content in onboardmedia management systems.

With respect to distributed content transfer to onboard media managementsystems associated with vehicles, as described above in connection withFIGS. 1-4, remote access management in accordance with FIGS. 5 and 6 mayallow for gradual distributed content transfer using personal electronicdevices over extended periods of time, wherein such content may betransferred to a target vehicle prior to such content being active. Suchcontent transfer may be opportunistically implemented in a distributedfashion when possible or available, whereas the activation of suchcontent may only be effective or implemented subsequently when updatedaccess rules allow for such activation. In addition, remote updating ofaccess rules may allow for substantially immediate updating of availableor accessible media content in a content library of the vehicle. In someembodiments, the content library 602 comprises data storage providingone terabyte or more of data storage, such as up to 30 terabytes ormore. In some implementations, content items may be transferred uponrequest for a passenger, and maintained in the content librarythereafter indefinitely and activated and deactivated as desiredremotely.

General Comments

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to anexclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of“including, but not limited to.” The word “coupled”, as generally usedherein, refers to two or more elements that may be either directlyconnected, or connected by way of one or more intermediate elements.Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,” and words of similarimport, when used in this application, shall refer to this applicationas a whole and not to any particular portions of this application. Wherethe context permits, words in the above Description using the singularor plural number may also include the plural or singular numberrespectively. The word “or” in reference to a list of two or more items,that word covers all of the following interpretations of the word: anyof the items in the list, all of the items in the list, and anycombination of the items in the list.

Reference throughout this disclosure to “some embodiments,” “certainembodiments,” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature,structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodimentcan be included in at least some embodiments. Thus, appearances of thephrases “in some embodiments,” “in certain embodiment,” or “in anembodiment” in various places throughout this specification are notnecessarily all referring to the same embodiment, and may refer to oneor more of the same or different embodiments. Furthermore, embodimentsdisclosed herein may or may not be embodiments of the invention. Forexample, embodiments disclosed herein may, in part or in whole, includenon-inventive features and/or components. In addition, the particularfeatures, structures or characteristics can be combined in any suitablemanner, as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art fromthis disclosure, in one or more embodiments.

The above detailed description of embodiments of the invention is notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise formdisclosed above. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, theinvention are described above for illustrative purposes, variousequivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the invention,as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. For example, whileprocesses or blocks are presented in a given order, alternativeembodiments may perform routines having steps, or employ systems havingblocks, in a different order, and some processes or blocks may bedeleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/or modified. Each ofthese processes or blocks may be implemented in a variety of differentways. Also, while processes or blocks are at times shown as beingperformed in series, these processes or blocks may instead be performedin parallel, or may be performed at different times.

The teachings of the invention provided herein can be applied to othersystems, not necessarily the system described above. The elements andacts of the various embodiments described above can be combined toprovide further embodiments.

While some embodiments of the inventions have been described, theseembodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are notintended to limit the scope of the disclosure. Indeed, the novel methodsand systems described herein may be embodied in a variety of otherforms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in theform of the methods and systems described herein may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit of the disclosure. The accompanying claims andtheir equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications aswould fall within the scope and spirit of the disclosure.

The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover suchforms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of theprotection. For example, the various components illustrated in thefigures may be implemented as software and/or firmware on a processor,ASIC/FPGA, or dedicated hardware. Also, the features and attributes ofthe specific embodiments disclosed above may be combined in differentways to form additional embodiments, all of which fall within the scopeof the present disclosure. Although the present disclosure providescertain preferred embodiments and applications, other embodiments thatare apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, includingembodiments which do not provide all of the features and advantages setforth herein, are also within the scope of this disclosure. Accordingly,the scope of the present disclosure is intended to be defined only byreference to the appended claims.

Methods and processes described herein may be embodied in, and partiallyor fully automated via, software code modules executed by one or moregeneral and/or special purpose computers. The word “module” may refer tologic embodied in hardware and/or firmware, or to a collection ofsoftware instructions, possibly having entry and exit points, written ina programming language, such as, for example, C or C++. A softwaremodule may be compiled and linked into an executable program, installedin a dynamically linked library, or may be written in an interpretedprogramming language such as, for example, BASIC, Perl, or Python. Itwill be appreciated that software modules may be callable from othermodules or from themselves, and/or may be invoked in response todetected events or interrupts. Software instructions may be embedded infirmware, such as an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM).“Module” may further refer to one or more devices, components, systems,or subsystems, which may conceptually implement relevant functionality.It will be further appreciated that hardware modules may be comprised ofconnected logic units, such as gates and flip-flops, and/or may becomprised of programmable units, such as programmable gate arrays,application specific integrated circuits, and/or processors. The modulesdescribed herein are preferably implemented as software modules, but maybe represented in hardware and/or firmware. Moreover, although in someembodiments a module may be separately compiled, in other embodiments amodule may represent a subset of instructions of a separately compiledprogram, and may not have an interface available to other logicalprogram units.

What is claimed is:
 1. A personal electronic device comprising: awireless communication interface; non-volatile data storage media; andcontrol circuitry communicatively coupled to the wireless communicationinterface and the non-volatile data storage media, the control circuitrybeing configured to: establish a first connection with a remote mediacontent management server over a first communication network; receive atleast a portion of a media content item from the media contentmanagement server over the first communication network; temporarilystore the at least a portion of the media content item in thenon-volatile data storage media; establish a second connection with anetwork access terminal of a media delivery system associated with avehicle over a second communication network using the wirelesscommunication interface; transfer the at least a portion of the mediacontent item from the non-volatile data storage media to the mediadelivery system over the second communication network using the wirelesscommunication interface; and after said transferring the at least aportion of the media content item, delete the at least a portion of themedia content from the non-volatile data storage media.
 2. The personalelectronic device of claim 1, wherein the at least a portion of themedia content comprises encrypted media.
 3. The personal electronicdevice of claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is further configuredto transmit an indication to the media content management serverindicating an amount of data storage of the non-volatile data storagemedia that is available for temporary storage of media content from themedia content management server.
 4. The personal electronic device ofclaim 1, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: obtainan indication that the at least a portion of the media content item isdesired for transfer to a media delivery system associated with anothervehicle; maintain the at least a portion of the media content item inthe non-volatile data storage media for a period of time after saidtransferring the at least a portion of the media content item inresponse to the indication; and transfer the at least a portion of themedia content item from the non-volatile data storage media to the mediadelivery system associated with the other vehicle; wherein said deletingthe at least a portion of the media content from the non-volatile datastorage media is performed after said transferring the at least aportion of the media content to the media delivery system associatedwith the other vehicle.
 5. The personal electronic device of claim 1,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to determine thatthe personal electronic device has unused network capacity at a firstperiod of time, wherein said transferring the at least a portion of themedia content item is performed at least in part during the first periodof time based on the determination that the personal electronic devicehas unused network capacity.
 6. The personal electronic device of claim1, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to, after saiddeleting the at least a portion of the media content from thenon-volatile data storage media, notify the media content managementserver that the portion of the media content has been deleted.
 7. Amedia content management server comprising: non-volatile data storagemedia storing: a media content library comprising media content items;association data associating users with personal electronic devices; anditinerary data indicating vehicles that the users are scheduled totravel on; a network interface; and control circuitry configured to:identify a first user scheduled to travel on a vehicle based on theitinerary data; determine a first personal electronic device of thefirst user based on the association data; and provide a first portion ofcontent of the media content items to the first personal electronicdevice over a first network using the network interface to allow forlocal transferring of the first portion of content by the first personalelectronic device to a content delivery system of the vehicle over asecond network when the first user is onboard the vehicle.
 8. The mediacontent management server of claim 7, wherein: the non-volatile datastorage media stores license data indicating associations between themedia content item and the vehicles; the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to determine a subset of the media content items that isassociated with a vehicle based on the license data; and the firstportion of the media content items comprises a portion of the subset ofthe media content items.
 9. The media content manager server of claim 8,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to determine thesubset of the media content items that is associated with the vehicle atleast in part based on a comparison of current content items stored inthe content delivery system of the vehicle and content items intended tobe stored on the vehicle.
 10. The media content management server ofclaim 7, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to providea second portion of content of the media content items to the contentdelivery system of the vehicle over a third network.
 11. The mediacontent management server of claim 7, wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured to transmit a request to the first personalelectronic device requesting access to data storage of the firstpersonal electronic device.
 12. The media content management server ofclaim 7, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: receivean indication from the first personal electronic device over the firstnetwork indicating an amount of storage that is usable for temporarystorage of the first portion of content; and identify the first portionof content based on the indicated amount of storage.
 13. The mediacontent manager server of claim 7, wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured to: identify a second user scheduled to travel on thevehicle based on the itinerary data; determine a second personalelectronic device of the second user based on the association data; andprovide a second portion of content of the media content items to thesecond personal electronic device over the first network using thenetwork interface.
 14. The media content management server of claim 13,wherein at least some of the first portion of content is part of thesecond portion of content.
 15. The media content management server ofclaim 7, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to, whensaid local transferring of the first portion of content by the firstpersonal electronic device to the content delivery system of the vehicleover the second network is unsuccessful, transfer the first portion ofcontent to the content delivery system of the vehicle over a thirdnetwork.
 16. A content delivery system for a vehicle, the contentdelivery system comprising: non-volatile data storage media configuredto store a media content library; a network access terminal; and a mediacontent server, the media content server comprising control circuitryconfigured to: establish a connection with a first personal electronicdevice over a first network using the network access terminal; receive afirst portion of content from the first personal electronic device overthe first network; store the first portion of content in thenon-volatile data storage media; receive a request for access to acontent item of the media content library associated with the firstportion of content from a media presentation device; and provide atleast part of the first portion of content to the media presentationdevice in response to the request.
 17. The content delivery system ofclaim 16, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to receivea second portion of content from a remote media content managementserver over a second network.
 18. The content delivery system of claim16, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to determinethat the first portion of content is valid prior to said storing thefirst portion of content in the non-volatile data storage media.
 19. Thecontent delivery system of claim 16, wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured to: receive an indication from a remote source over asecond network indicating that a subset of the media content library isdesignated as active; identify at least a portion of the subset of themedia content library as active based on the indication; and cause theat least a portion of the subset of the media content to be presented ona display of the media presentation device.
 20. The content deliverysystem of claim 19, wherein the control circuitry is further configuredto restrict access to media of the media content library that is notdesignated as active.
 21. The content delivery system of claim 16,wherein: the control circuitry is further configured to obtain anindication of the presence of the first personal electronic device; andsaid receiving the first portion of the content from the first personalelectronic device is performed in response to said indication.
 22. Thecontent delivery system of claim 16, wherein the media presentationdevice comprises one of a personal electronic device and a seatbackmedia unit.
 23. A method of delivering media content on a vehicle, themethod comprising: by control circuitry of an onboard media deliverysystem installed in a vehicle: establishing a connection with a firstpersonal electronic device disposed within the vehicle over a firstnetwork using a network access unit of the onboard media deliverysystem; receiving a first portion of content from the first personalelectronic device over the first network; storing the first portion ofcontent as part of a media content library in a non-volatile data storedisposed within the vehicle; receiving a request for access to a contentitem of the media content library associated with the first portion ofcontent from a media presentation device disposed within the vehicle;and providing at least part of the first portion of content to the mediapresentation device in response to the request.
 24. The method of claim23, further comprising: receiving a second portion of content from aremote media content management server over a second network; andstoring the second portion of content as part of the media contentlibrary in the non-volatile data store.
 25. The method of claim 23,further comprising: establishing a connection with a second personalelectronic device disposed within the vehicle over the first network;receiving a second portion of content from the second personalelectronic device over the first network; and storing the second portionof content as part of the media content library in the non-volatile datastore; wherein said providing the at least a portion of the mediacontent library comprises providing the first portion of contenttogether with the second portion of content to the media presentationdevice.
 26. The method of claim 23, further comprising: establishing aconnection with a remote computing device over a second network;receiving, from the remote computing device over the second network, anindication indicating a subset of the media content library that isdesignated as active; updating metadata to indicate that the subset ofthe media content library is designated as active; and presenting atleast a portion of the subset of the media content library that isdesignated as active on the media presentation device based at least inpart on said updating.
 27. A method of managing media content on avehicle, the method comprising: by control circuitry of an onboard mediadelivery system installed in a vehicle: storing a media content librarycomprising a plurality of media content items in non-volatile datastorage media disposed in the vehicle; storing access rule data in thenon-volatile data storage media, the access rule data indicating, foreach of the plurality of media content items, whether the respectivemedia content item is designated as active; establishing a connectionwith a remote computing device over a communication link; receiving,from the remote computing device over the communication link, anindication indicating a first subset of the media content library to bedesignated as active; updating the access rule data to indicate that thefirst subset of the media content library is designated as active; andpresenting at least a portion of the first subset of the media contentlibrary on a media presentation device based at least in part on saidupdating.
 28. The method of claim 27, further comprising maintaining asecond subset of the media content library in the non-volatile datastorage media after said receiving the indication, wherein the updatedaccess rule data indicates that the second subset of the media contentlibrary is designated as inactive.
 29. The method of claim 28, furthercomprising restricting access to the second subset of the media contentlibrary.
 30. A media management system for a vehicle, the mediamanagement system comprising: non-volatile data storage media configuredto store: a media content library comprising a plurality of mediacontent items; and access rule data, the access rule data indicating,for each of the plurality of media content items, whether the respectivemedia content item is designated as active; a network access terminal;and a media content server, the media content server comprising controlcircuitry configured to: establish a connection with a remote computingdevice over a communication link; receive, from the remote computingdevice over the communication link, an indication indicating a firstsubset of the media content library is designated as active; update theaccess rule data to indicate that the first subset of the media contentlibrary is designated as active; and present at least a portion of thefirst subset of the media content library on a media presentation devicebased at least in part on said updating.
 31. The media management systemof claim 30, wherein: the non-volatile data storage media is furtherconfigured to store a second subset of the media content library in thenon-volatile data storage media; and the updated access rule dataindicates that the second subset of the media content library isdesignated as inactive.